Tips for an Inclusive Annual Session From the 2024 Care Committee
Every year, our awareness grows of the many dimensions of inclusion to which we need to pay attention as we worship, play, and work together at Annual Session. These ideas and resources are intended to support our learning process.
People with Disabilities
Physical Limitations. We are accustomed to making special arrangements for those among us who have trouble with walking or steps, making sure the places we are staying have elevators, providing golf carts and drivers, etc.
Hearing Limitations. We also know that sometimes we speak too softly in small and large groups, and we encourage each other to speak up. In the Zoom era, we now make sure we have closed captioning turned on to help with the hearing challenge.
Visual Limitations. With Zoom so widely used, we are also called to communicate effectively with people who can’t see screens. We follow NPYM’s document accessibility guidelines and take steps like these examples:
- We post documents in Word on the Annual Session website ahead of plenaries, so that those with screen readers can use that tool.
- If we must show text at the last minute, we take time to read through it completely out loud.
- When we use pictures or diagrams in presentations, we describe them verbally.
Here are some suggestions for including the people who experience these limitations:
How to Interact With People Who Have Disabilities: 13 Steps (wikihow.com).
Other Diversities
We have committed ourselves, in Yearly Meeting minutes, to uprooting racism and to affirming gender diversity. This short video illustrates how important it is for all of us to avoid wou nding each other in our interactions, at Annual Session and elsewhere.
While NPYM does not require that anyone share their pronouns, many of us choose to do so to support those who feel oppressed by narrow gender categories. If the terminology of a multiple-gender world is new to you, we recommend that you spend some time before Annual Session with these materials, prepared by the Unitarian Universalists.
Sexual Orientation & Gender Identity 101
Transgender 101: Identity, Inclusion, and Resources | UUA.org
To help all of us in NPYM learn to have respectful interactions, please let the Care Committee know of points we should add to this list. Contact any member of the 2024 Care Committee: Euclid Bautista, Jonathan Betz-zall, Susan Cozzens, Mary Hanson, Virginia Herrick, Theo Mace, or Tom Krughoff.